1856.] Sorgho Sucre — Siveet Millet, 373 



cent, of the former." This, it would seem, is evidence strong enougli 

 to warrant a more extended trial of its merits, and if it will in any 

 way supply the place of corn sugar, it must of necessity become a 

 very important and valuable acquisition to the agricultural products of 

 the middle and northern States. I am fully satisfied that it will ripen 

 in north latitude 42^, which is about the northern limit of Illinois. 



The process of making sugar from it would not necessarily differ 

 from others, and for family use only could be made simple. The chief 

 difficulty appears to be the expressing of the juice from the stalk. 

 Upon a small scale, and a scale large enough to manufacture all the 

 sugar wanted in a family during a year, the pressing could all be done 

 with a pair of rollers, say from one to two feet long, and from 6 to 10 

 inches in diameter, to one of which a crank must be attached for hand 

 u&e. Such a pair of rollers placed in a frame sufficiently strong, and 

 arranged to be set close or wide, by means of wedges, would be all that 

 is necessary, and any one who has the least of mechanical skill, could 

 put them up. The cost would not necessarily exceed two days' labor, 

 while one week's work in boiling, etc. would produce from five to ten 

 times the amount of sugar that is usually made from the maple tree in 

 the same length of time, and the same amount of water boiled. This 

 production then, in an economical point of view, well merits the atten- 

 tion of the farming community, and should they give it that attention, 

 which in my humble opinion it demands, in a few years it will be so 

 extensively cultivated in Illinois, that her rural population will have 

 but little occasion to purchase their sugar and molasses at stores. 

 Wabash county is particularly interested in the cultivation of this 

 plant, and I hope to see her rich and intelligent farmers give it a fair, 

 impartial trial. 



All of which is respectfully submitted. Jos. C. Orth. 



Dr. Ray's Report. 



Huntington, Long Island^ JV. Y. 

 Early last spring, I was presented with a few seeds of the sugar 

 cane by a gentleman who received a small package of them in a let- 

 ter from England, where they had, by the aid above referred to, been 

 matured. At the usual seed-planting season in this vicinity, the seeds 

 were carefully planted in my garden, in a bed richly manured with a 

 compost of guano, stable manure, and charcoal dust. They were placed 

 in drills, at such distances apart as are observed in sowing sweet 

 corn. It kept nearly an even pace with the corn in its germination, 

 growth, and maturity, in all respects, except that of obtaining a hight 



